6 ere RT RNA a LETTITOR Don't push me, cause I’m close to the edge, I’m trying not to lose my head. It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder How I keep from going under —Grandmaster Flash, “The Message” Almost there, folks The other day I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long, long while. I had just finished up my biggest project of the semester, and with that project done, the wind is finally going to be at my back. So I guess what I felt was finality. Sweet, beautiful finality. Actually, finality isn’t the right word; it’s not like that project meant the end of the semester for me, or even the beginning of the end of the semester. Nothing’s really final per se, but it’s a big step towards being final. The feeling I experienced was something of a great pressure being lifted from me. I felt the way I expect pregnant women feel just after childbirth. This project had become my baby, or perhaps my problem child, and it had just been born. Throughout the process of completing this project I would’ ve given anything to take the easy way out, and have a proverbial caesarean to end the pain (hell, I would’ve gone with proverbial abortion with this project). But I stuck with it, and I had this finished project to show from it. So that’s what the feeling was: accomplishment. Sweet, beautiful accomplishment. Or was it? Maybe accomplishment — isn’t the best word. Accomplishment seems to carry with it a sense of a task well done; of pride; of supreme ultimate elite 100 per cent victory, if you will. This feels more like I had just gotten by with the skin of my teeth, like Luke Skywalker after blowing up the First Death Star. He knew the odds of success were slim, but when all the pieces fell into place, he didn’t celebrate his accomplishments or the fact that there was a finality to his task, he just celebrated that he made it. So I guess I felt what Luke Skywalker felt: the Force. I mean, I felt relief. Sweet, beautiful relief. Maybe not. I mean, I knew I could do it, it just was going to be a tough, painful thing. I noticed throughout the project that whenever I procrastinated (which, sad to say, I did plenty of), all I would do is daydream about what I would do once the damn thing was done with. I was thinking about maybe going to Tofino for a week. Or maybe Ill finally get to finish the books I’ve been meaning to read forever (right now it’s Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Jack Layton’s Homelessness at the top of the to-read list). Hell, maybe I’ll finally get around to laundry; I must say, it’s been on the backburner for some time. All those things were topping my priorities. Throughout completing that project, it was never the grades, the completion of the course, or even the finality, the accomplishment, or the relief I was looking for in the end. I just wanted to get this goddamn semester through with. So that was the feeling: summer’s almost here, muthafuckas! That was the feeling I had. Sweet, beautiful, summer’s almost here, muthafuckas! Because in a few weeks, summer will be here, muthafuckas. Your friend in high fidelity, _ ~ Liam Britten — Editor-in-Chief The Other Press seni The Other Press is Hiring Arts Editor Cover stories about all sorts of arts events and products. Reviewing, reporting and editing will all be the responsibility of a successful appli- cant. Good writing skills, fresh perspective and diverse interests a must! Pay: $400/month Send your resume to editor @theotherpress.ca.